Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst join together with state and organizational partners and associates, supported with a bureau of experts in a new national alliance to facilitate state-level computing education reforms. The Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance builds on five years of work by the Commonwealth Alliance for IT Education (CAITE) and Georgia Computes! and on best practices in computing education, particularly those developed in the community of Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Alliances. CAITE and Georgia Computes! have been successful in facilitating state-level systemic change that has improved the quality of computing education, broadened participation in computing, and increased the number of students in the pathway to computing and computing-intensive degrees. The partnership will determine the unique needs in other state/regional computing education systems and develop approaches that address those needs. California and South Carolina were chosen as initial ECEP partner states because they have the population, institutions, workforce demand and individuals or organizations ready to work to institute reform. The project staff will form a cohort of associate states and regions starting with Alabama, Indiana, and Puerto Rico, with plans to grow by leveraging CSTA?s Leadership Cohort and Chapters and STARS partners. Using Massachusetts, Georgia and some of the partner/associate states and regions to test and refine practices, ECEP will work with NCWIT, STARS, CSTA and our cadre of experts to disseminate lessons learned and best practices through mechanisms such as Train-the-Trainer workshops, workshops on how to run sustainable and effective events (such as summer camps), and strategies for strengthening and aligning pathways and curricula. ECEP will train STARS Leaders to do effective outreach, partner with NCWIT to disseminate best practices and develop new resources for our partner and associate states, and provide data to inform national and local organizations on computing education issues in ECEP partner states and regions. Independent evaluation informs project decision making and develops processes and tools that are available to new partners.
The goal of ECEP is to have a significant impact on improving and broadening participation in computing education state by state. Increasing the number of computing and computing-intensive degree graduates, and the diversity of those graduates, requires systemic change to educational pathways. Students decide as early as pre-teens against computing as a career, but a quality high school computer science experience can change that decision. Underrepresented minority students may not gain access to quality computing education unless it is made available broadly in high schools. The diversity and reach of community colleges makes them attractive pathways for students if we can facilitate transfer and ensure success. For computing to be taken seriously in middle, high school and community and 4-year colleges requires that we define high school computing curricula, increase the number of well-trained, certified high school computing teachers, improve post-secondary degree programs, curricular alignment, advising, and retention, and generally promote K-20 computing education reform. ECEP state partners and regions should see significant improvements in their computing education, through public policy, outreach, or changes in the education system. By transferring the success of CAITE and Georgia Computes! into other states, ECEP will develop, implement, and evaluate models for replicating change at the state level.
